Product Information
The new tool for replicating InfoObjects’ Master Data delivered by SAP Profitability and Performance Management – Part 2
Hello everyone!
I am back with wonderful news! Remote Function Adapter (RFA) type Replicate InfoObject Master Data was enhanced starting with SAP Profitability and Performance Management Support Package 15. As there are new details to mention, new checks to be done and data to be replicated, I think a part 2 to the blog post “The new tool for replicating InfoObjects’ Master Data delivered by SAP Profitability and Performance Management would come in handy for us users. See the first part here:
Let’s have a short overview over the latest updates regarding this RFA type:
- Master data defined for an InfoObject attribute in SAP BW and SAP BW/4HANA can now be replicated into an SAP Profitability and Performance Management field
- New validations are done when replicating hierarchies defined in SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA for InfoObjects
Please check also the SAP Note 3092489 for all the technical details regarding this new enhancement.
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/3092489
Let’s check out the Rules tab of the RFA. Notice there are 2 new fields available, comparing with the last Support Package. I have marked these with green color.
RFA Rules Tab
As we already know, the data can be hard coded here in the “Field” column by the use of the formula button, or we can import data from an input function.
I think the best way to check out the new features is to start playing around with the RFA and see what happens. So, let’s get straight into it!
Scenario #1 – Replicate Master Data from InfoObject Attributes
Let’s see what settings I have to make at environment level, before this new enhancement can work properly.
As SAP Profitability and Performance Management users, we know by now there should be an environment field into which the InfoObject Master Data is replicated. But what about the attributes? I need to define as many environment fields as attributes I want to replicate, and then maintain the InfoObject – Attribute dependency with the help of “Maintain Attributes” button.
Environment Fields
I select the field “RESULT_IOBJ1”, click on “Maintain Attributes” and mark all the five fields as dependent attributes.
Define Attribute Fields
The Application Help Documentation also offers information about creating characteristic environment fields and maintaining the attributes for soon-to-be replicated InfoObjects. See more about this topic here: https://help.sap.com/viewer/56471df1959f4cfd9e3bf7a6d2d5be42/latest/en-US/4a840a8bd4304758a43571a30e89e7bc.html
Take note that the environment fields for InfoObject Master Data and Attributes Master Data are all of type Characteristic. Regardless of the data type the attributes have in BW, when the data is replicated into SAP Profitability and Performance Management, it is casted to character data type and it is stripped of the navigational capabilities.
I continue by defining a Model Table (MT) function, which will be an input function for our RFA. Let’s have a look and see what configurations I’ve done here.
I added 4 environment fields which will be used to do the mapping with 4 of the RFA’s Rule fields.
Model Table Fields
After activating the function, I can construct the input data by pressing the “Maintain Data” button. I chose an InfoObject which has multiple types of attributes – navigational, display, time-dependent, characteristic, unit, key figure. I have marked the technical names in orange color.
The first entry represents the InfoObject itself. I fill in: the environment field into which I want to replicate Master Data and hierarchies, the InfoObject’s name and the role.
The following entries represent the Attributes. I fill in: the environment fields which will receive the Master Data, the technical names of the attributes, the role and finally and most important, the technical name of the InfoObject to which these entities are defined as attributes.
Model Table Data
Here’s how the information looks like in BW. Use transaction RSD1 for SAP BW systems or HANA Studio / Eclipse BW Modelling tool for BW4/HANA.
BW Data – InfoObject Attributes
Now going forward to the RFA, I can create the mapping in the Rules tab and after that, activate the function.
RFA Field Mapping on Rules Tab
After I’ve finished doing the settings, activated both MT and RFA functions, I can run the RFA and see what the result looks like.
Looking through the messages on the result page, we see success messages which confirm the function execution was done, but also a warning message announcing that time-dependent attributes are not replicated, because the replication of such attributes is not supported.
Message Log
Now let’s see how the actual data looks like. For this I navigate to Environment, select the environment field I defined as InfoObject container and the press the “Open Master & Hierarchy Data” button.
Environment Fields
Master Data Results from YBW_CH091
We can see that the result table holds the values of the InfoObject Master Data and of the attributes’ Master Data. As expected, there are no values under attribute YBW_CH002, because the RFA does not replicate time-dependent attributes.
We can compare this result list with the /BIC/P* and /BIC/T* table values in BW, to see that the result is correct.
BW Table /BIC/P*
BW Table /BIC/T*
Scenario #2 – Replicate Hierarchies from an InfoObject
We can find out all the relevant settings on the “Hierarchy” tab in BW. We can tell from here if a hierarchy is suitable for replicating into an environment field.
BW InfoObject Hierarchy Tab
From this list of options, SAP Profitability and Performance Management supports only hierarchies which are version-dependent and those which are not time-dependent. But we will be cheeky and try to see what happens when we want to break the rules with replicating unsupported hierarchy types.
For our second scenario, let’s create a some new environment fields, a new MT function and a new RFA function. I fill the relevant data into the MT as seen below. I chose the 3 InfoObject for the following reasons: the first one has time-dependent hierarchies, the second one has time-dependent hierarchy versions and the third one has version-dependent hierarchies.
Model Table Data
In the next step, we create the mapping in the RFA’s Rules tab, activate and run the RFA.
Here’s what the result page shows:
Message Log
There are two warning messages stating that for the time related hierarchies, replication is not supported. The warning messages do not interrupt the function’s execution so let’s go ahead and see what data we find in the three environment fields.
From the first and second InfoObjects in the list, only the Master Data was replicated. So, we can see that even though the hierarchy replication is not supported, the other functionalities are in place.
Master Data Results from YBW_CH099
Master Data Results from YBW_CH080
For the last InfoObject in the list, both Master Data and hierarchy data and structures were replicated. I sorted the list ascending, by hierarchy name, so we can better distinguish the hierarchy trees (one tree is marked with blue, another with orange). We can notice that the hierarchy name is constructed as a concatenation of two valuable information taken from BW: the hierarchy name and the hierarchy version. This functionality helps in keeping data correctly sorted and prevents hierarchy nodes and values from getting mixed up between two or more hierarchies.
Master and Hierarchy Data Results from YBW_CH083
BW Hierarchy Versioning
Some other points worth mentioning which come with this RFA enhancement are:
- Validations prevent replicating form BW to SAP Profitability and Performance Management of hierarchies which have intervals, or which allow reverse +/- sign option.
- In cases where we use external characteristics in hierarchies, the only values and nodes which will be replicated into the Environment are those belonging to the InfoObject in cause, and none of those which come from the external InfoObject.
- Replicating Master Data and Hierarchies for InfoObjects which use compounding is supported
I hope this step-by-step guide shines some light on the new functionalities of RFA Replicate InfoObject Master Data and breaks the ice for using the new features. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions regarding this subject.